New Zealand Gasshuku with Sensei Tetsuji
Nakamura

Nakamura Sensei recently headed to the southern hemisphere
to Wellington, New Zealand to teach at the countries
National Gasshuku...

What a weekend!
Great training, great company, great food, great locations –
just great!

I arrived to New
Zealand the day before the Gasshuku with a team of over 30
AOGKF members from Australia, all looking forward to
training with Sensei Nakamura for three days!

I was accompanied by
Sensei Joe Roses (IOGKF 7th Dan) and both he and
I were invited to the Dojo of Sensei Jenifer Sigley to take
a training session for her students. Both Sensei Jen and
Sensei David Reddaway are always so kind and generous to us
and we had a great time training with their students.

The next day, we
showed our students some of the great sights around
beautiful Wellington, before we headed up Mount Victoria to
the Victoria University Recreaton Center for Dan grade
training with Sensei Nakamura.

As usual, Sensei was
in very fine form. He took us through Sanchin Kata,
emphasising the use of the Shoulder blade in the Kata and
when punching. He also taught us how to develop power by
using our spine and introduced us to the new sensation
sweeping the IOGKF globe – the ‘fish up’.

For not being the
world’s biggest man, Nakamura Sensei seems to pull enormous
power from no where. But as he shared more of his secrets
with us you appreciate more and more the perfect technique
he has. Couple this with his humiltity and you understand
how lucky we are to have him as our new leader.

We all attended a
Kiwi BBQ at the cambridge hotel after training where we
could share a cold beer and a hot sausage sizzle with Sensei
Nakamura in a relaxed atmosphere. Cheers were going up for
the Rugby and for the exciting two days we had left ahead of
us.

The next two days
were all grades training and a big congratulations to IOGKF
New Zealand who had over 150 participants turn up to train!
Members travelled from both the North and the South islands.
Many Australians all traveled across the Tasman sea for the
event with 32 AOGKF members coming with Sensei Joe Roses,
including one who traveled all the way from Singapore to
particpate, and Sensei Chris Larken (IOGKFOZ) attended with
two of his senior black belts students.

Each day there was
all grades training in the morning with Sensei Nakamura. We
were put through everything from reflex basic training to
running through the woods! Then afterwards we were split
into groups for two sessions.

I took the kids
sessions over the weekend with some 60 + young students in
each session. I was also sharing a room with Sensei
Nakamura’s classes. When Sensei would give a demonstration
of a Kata the whole room, even the kids, would fall silent
to show their respect. It was a great atmosphere.

In the main hall,
many students told me of the great talent they were exposed
to with instructors from New Zealand and Australia, some of
which who had just recently returned from Okinawa.

We would then come
back together for another all grades session in the
afternoon. On the Saturday, Sensei Nakamura was needed to
conduct a black belt grading and handed the reigns over to
Sensei Joe Roses from Australia. Sensei Joe put everyone
through his basic rountines and finished with demonstrations
of New Zealand and Australian members doing Kata and
applications.

For the same session
on the Sunday, Nakamura Sensei took us through Gekisai Dai
Ichi, 30 times in a row. It was fantastic training! You have
to push yourself as your body rises and sinks, but I
especially enjoyed being next to my good friends Sensei
Thwhiti Seeds and Jenifer Sigley. We thrived off eachother.
I can’t wait to do it again!

And so ended a great
Gasshuku with so much variety, so many talented instructors
and a fantastic atmosphere. Many Australian members
commented to me that they could wait to train with Sensei
Nakamura again and return back to New Zealand.

On behalf of the
AOGKF, I want to thank the New Zealand Kambukai, the event
organiser and all the members that made us all feel so
welcome. It was definitely one of the best Gasshuku’s I have
been too. Thank you so much.